India batter Suryakumar Yadav has been in scintillating touch of late and on Wednesday the 32-year-old broke a series of records during his unbeaten knock of 50 off 33 balls against South Africa in the first T20I in Thiruvananthapuram.

With his eighth fifty in the shortest format of the game, Suryakumar Yadav went past 700 runs in T20Is in 2022, becoming the first Indian to achieve the feat. In the process, the Mumbai Indians batsman broke Shikhar Dhawan's tally of 689 made in 2018. Yadav currently sits on 732 runs this year.

Suryakumar Yadav has been the most in-form batter for India, and what has been amazing about his display is that he has made these runs at a strike rate of over 180 and an average of 40.

He showcased his explosive batting against the Proteas as well as Suryakumar Yadav smashed three sixes in his knock, and with that, he scripted a new world record of hitting the most number of sixes in a calendar year in T20Is. Previously, the record was held by Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan with 42 sixes in 2021 followed by New Zealand's Martin Guptill who hit 41 in the same year. Yadav now has 45 sixes to his name in 2022.

Suryakumar Yadav's heroics in Kerala were lauded by fans on social media with many calling him the best T20I batter in the world.

Earlier, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting revealed the turning point of Suryakumar Yadav's career.

“When I was in Mumbai, he was an 18-19-year-old kid, a young man. He was in our squad not quite getting a game. The year after I left, he was traded to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) where his career started to turn around. He got a bit of an opportunity in the middle order and then MI bought him back in the auction and has been a match-winning player for them for five or six seasons now, to the point that he is one of their retained players”, Ricky Ponting told ICC.

Meanwhile, in a recent interaction with Hindustan Times, Suryakumar Yadav spoke about his mindset in the middle and why he's always looking to smash the ball out of the park.

“The mindset has always been the same since I started playing, it just got a good direction to it. Nothing has changed. I always enjoy it (fearless approach). When I made my debut for Mumbai as well, the only thing which came to my mind was attack. At that time also, I used to feel attack is the best defence,” Suryakumar said

“So, it kept building from that and slowly when I came into this set-up, I realised what my game was, how I can be a little different which can help my team from unreal situations, and I wanted to be a little different. I wanted to be batting in difficult situations and I wanted to be that factor a team is always looking for,” he added.

Notably, Suryakumar Yadav was dealing with stomach issues ahead of India's final T20I against Australia in Hyderabad but somehow managed to recover on time to feature in the game.

“There was a little issue. The weather changed and now we have started traveling as well. So I had a stomach ache and then fever,” Suryakumar Yadav told teammate Axar Patel in an interview posted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“At the same time, I knew this one is the decider. So I told my doctor and physio, ‘If this would've been the World Cup final, then how will I react? I can’t sit like this.' So I told them, ‘do anything — give me any medicine, injection — do everything you can to get me fit for the game. (And) once you have worn the jersey and are on the ground then the emotion is different,'” Suryakumar Yadav said.

The Mumbai Indians batter also talked about his knock in Hyderabad where he stitched together a huge partnership with Virat Kohli to bail India out of a precarious situation and also explained why he decided to take on the Australian bowlers before he lost his wicket for 69.

“In that situation, it was much needed. I thought let's take my chance. There were two-three shots in my mind, was trying to hit over mid-off. Thoughts have always been the same, have always wanted to express myself. That's how I practice in the nets. Just loving at No.4. A lot of challenges and responsibilities as well [for the T20 WC]. You can't shy away from expressing yourself. Have to be smart,” he concluded.

Suryakumar Yadav will return to action on Sunday when India will take on South Africa in the second T20I in Guwahati.

India squad for South Africa T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed.

SA T20I Squad: Temba Bavuma (C), Quinton De Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Bjorn Fortuin, Marco Jansen, Andile Phehlukwayo.